Activate Updates: November 2023

Activate Updates

Nov 30

Written By Leanna Yu

This Month's Features

Q&A with Activate’s new CEO
How one fellow is helping farmers build more resilient cows

Plus

Activate Fellow wins
Ecosystem news
Job opportunities

This month, we sit down with our new CEO, Cyrus Wadia, to discuss his history with our organization, his vision for Activate’s future, and how our fellows continue to create impact beyond the companies they build.

Read On

Catie McVey (DairyFIT, Cohort 2023) is using livestock data analytics to build more resilient cows. These cows can withstand the volatility of climate change, and in turn, unlock greener farming practices. Her innovations are deeply rooted in North Carolina, where she grew up and recently returned.

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We’re excited to share that applications for Cohort 2024 exceeded our previous milestones. We received over 800 applications, with applicants spanning 48 states, Washington, D.C., and Puerto Rico. Our reviewers are diligently evaluating applications, and we’re looking forward to welcoming our new fellows this spring!

Leah Ellis (Sublime Systems, Cohort 2020) testified before the U.S. Senate Committee on Environment and Public Works. The topic of the hearing was “Opportunities in Industrial Decarbonization: Delivering Benefits for the Economy and the Climate.” Ellis emphasized the pivotal role the government holds as the largest U.S. purchaser of cement and concrete.

Looking for some holiday listening? Catch Cody Finke (Brimstone, Cohort 2019) on a recent episode of the podcast How I Built This with Guy Raz, where he discusses why decarbonizing cement is necessary to meet our emissions goals and how Brimstone is scaling its clean cement technology. Also, listen to Marketplace’s feature on wireless battery charging that features Resonant Link, co-founded by Grayson Zulauf (Cohort 2020).

A recipient of Defense Production Act funding to manufacture heat pumps in the United States, Vince Romanin (Gradient, Cohort 2017) met President Biden at this year’s White House Demo Day, showcasing innovation spurred by federal investments in research and development. Gradient’s heat pumps were one of more than 40 innovations on display.

Track our fellows' progress in real-time on our social media feeds.

IN OUR ECOSYSTEM
Upcoming events, relevant opportunities, and what we're reading.

Upcoming Events

MaRS Climate Impact will take place on November 29-30 in Toronto featuring interactive panel discussions, thought-provoking debates, and company demos with innovators and global clean-tech leaders working on the platforms, partnerships, and strategies needed to scale the most impactful solutions.
The Community Clean Energy Coalition (CCEC) Prize Summit, hosted by the U.S. Department of Energy and Clean Energy Business Network, will take place December 6-7 at the Atlanta University Center, a consortium of leading HBCUs. The Summit will showcase the 10 winning teams of the CCEC Prize and bring together a broad range of stakeholders to promote dialogue and knowledge-sharing on strategies to advance a just energy transition. Those unable to make it to Atlanta can tune in via livestream.
The Industry Growth Forum (IGF) provides startups the opportunity to receive feedback and build business strategies, gain priority access to schedule 1:1 meetings with investors, and get plugged into the National Renewable Energy Laboratory ecosystem. 2024 IGF will be held on May 1-3 in Denver. Apply to present your solution by December 4.
We're excited to announce that Activate is an official partner of CarbonUnbound USA, a leadership summit happening May 21-23, 2024 in New York City. Our partnership and the summit will focus on achieving a collective mission: one gigaton of carbon removed from Earth's atmosphere. Join the waitlist for early ticket access.

Relevant Opportunities

The California Test Bed (CalTestBed) Initiative provides entrepreneurs with vouchers worth up to $300K for third-party testing of their technologies at one of more than 70 testbeds across Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory and eight University of California campuses. Since 2019, CalTestBed has supported three cohorts of 56 companies driving innovation in the global clean-energy economy. The application deadline has been extended to December 3.
LACI offers incubation services for startups that are ready to scale. LACI portfolio companies receive powerful advisory support from “Executives in Residence” and connect with a vast network of supportive peers and an influential network of industry leaders. Apply for the newest cohort by December 20.
The U.S. Department of Energy announced $10M in funding for a new program, Inspiring Generations of New Innovators to Impact Technologies in Energy 2024 (IGNIITE 2024), which will empower early-career innovators to develop disruptive energy technologies. The deadline for concept paper submissions is January 5, 2024.
The DeltaClimeVT Energy2024 energy and climate business accelerator program is designed to help Vermont’s utilities increase adoption of clean-energy, smart building, and electric vehicle technologies that enable the integration of distributed energy resources with the grid. Entrepreneurs will work directly with Vermont utilities throughout the program to contribute to Vermont’s Comprehensive Energy Plan (90% renewables/efficiency by 2050) and Burlington’s Net Zero by 2030 goals. Apply by February 23, 2024.

Activate Voices

Activate Houston managing director Jeremy Pitts spoke with the Houston Energy Transition Initiative (HETI) about the Houston Innovation ecosystem and how Activate’s newest in-residence community will support emerging entrepreneurs in Texas.
Sublime Systems (Leah Ellis, Cohort 2020) and Cypris Materials (Ryan Pearson and Matthew Ryan, Cohort 2020) were named on C&EN’s 10 Startups to Watch list, and FLO Materials (Kezi Cheng, Cohort 2021) was listed on the publication’s On Our Radar list.
J Provine (Aligned Carbon, Cohort 2018) was interviewed by SemiWiki about how he came to co-found Aligned Carbon and why the company's carbon nanotubes are unique in the marketplace.
MicroByre (Sarah Richardson, Cohort 2016) announced a partnership with the East Tennessee State University Research Corporation (ETSURC) to create microbial-derived products via precision fermentation. MicroByre will use its proprietary development platform to create a laboratory-feasible biotechnology solution and the ETSURC will validate a scaled manufacturing process.
Alexa Schmitz (REEgen, Cohort 2022) was featured in a Nature article about REEgen's biomining technology. The tech uses microorganisms to dissolve ground-up rocks, waste electronic components, and other solids that contain rare-earth elements. And this is done without the environmental and safety hazards associated with traditional chemical separation technology.
Garrett Boudinot (Vycarb, Cohort 2022) was interviewed by The Gigaton, a climate-career-focused newsletter, about his personal and professional history as well as Vycarb's distributed carbon dioxide removal technology.

Want us to highlight an upcoming event or relevant opportunity in next month's newsletter? Let us know.

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